life. A swallow, catching insects, does not long to be a bee, gathering honey. And the bee revelling in the clover does not want to eat flies. These creatures, then, the beasts, are perfectly happy because they are perfectly conformed to the rule and order of their being; in other words, they are still in paradise. They have not eaten of the fruit of that deadly tree that we have all tasted; and so, though they seem to die, they live with the joy of immortals. Dwelling wholly in the body, they suffer, indeed, the discomforts and pangs of the body; but not the anguish of anticipation and dread which gives their sting to human pains. What man cares, seriously, for the fiercest toothache? What man's spirit does not go faint and sick at certain slight painless tremors that assure him that his days in the world are numbered?
